Ohio State Women’s Volleyball team getting pumped up before the home game against Purdue on Oct. 19, 2019. Ohio State lost 2-3. Lantern File Photo
The Buckeyes are set to return to the court Friday for the first time since hiring a new head coach and navigating a postponed season.
Ohio State squares off against Maryland to open the unprecedented season and looks to start off on a good note. The Terrapins finished their 2019 season with a 13-19 overall record, while the Buckeyes finished with a record of 15-17. Ohio State owns a 12-5 lead in its all-time series with Maryland beginning in 1978.
The Buckeyes will be playing against senior outside hitter Erika Pitchard, who was named a 2020-21 preseason All-Big Ten honoree for Maryland.
In August, the Buckeyes were preparing for a fall season, but the season was postponed just four days into the team’s practice slate.
“Initially, I would say we were all pretty crushed,” sophomore setter Mac Podraza said. “It sucked to hear that our season was canceled and the uncertainty of whether or not it would actually end up happening in the spring was so up in the air and so it was a lot of anxiety all at once.”
The Big Ten, however, announced the schedule Dec. 29, 2020, including 22 conference-only matches over 11 weeks. This announcement allowed for the team to have set dates to focus their training on while leading up to the first match of the season.
With the team having the extra training time before playing games, Podraza said her team utilized Zoom calls and playing Kahoot games to learn more volleyball IQ and to scout other teams.
“During the pandemic and the shutdown we spent a lot of time just scouting other teams in the Big Ten and building volleyball IQ, without having the ability to practice the skills on the court,” head coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg said. “The volleyball IQ is going to be a strength for us, but also having a variety of weapons in terms of attackers.”
There are many unknowns to the spring season with the absence of fans in the stands and the pending conditions of players’ health and availability as they go week to week. Oldenburg said she set out to push for her players to be dynamic in all positions, specifically the attackers.
“A lot of our attackers have played different positions throughout the course of training and it was intentional just so that we prepare for whatever might come our way.” Oldenburg said.
Oldenburg said that her team has also utilized this extra time before the season to work on the connections and culture of the team because of the addition of a new coach and new players to the returning squad.
“I think a new staff during a pandemic is a challenge in itself,” Oldenburg said. “But I also felt like it served us well because we were able to dive into rebuilding our culture and getting to know each other and just buying into something new.”
New on the court for the Buckeyes will be junior transfer setter Josie Vondran along with freshmen middle blocker Rylee Rader, defensive specialist Sarah Sue Morbitzer and opposite hitter Emily Londot.
Leading up to the game, the only thing that Podraza said was making her nervous was the nerves that come on game day.
“The only thing making all of us look at it a different way is that we haven’t played volleyball in so long,” Podraza said. “We are just so excited to get back on a court, but it’s those nerves, those pre-game day nerves, that we haven’t felt in so long, but I’m sure we work through those in the first couple points and be good to go as soon as those work through.”
The Buckeyes will play at 3 p.m. both Friday and Saturday against the Terrapins in two matches.
